Human costs of delayed detention
- Author:
- Jason Marshall
- Posted:
- Thursday, 3 November 2011
Indefinite mandatory detention will end up costing Australia much in the long run, as we nurse a legacy of psychological problems caused by placing vulnerable people in terrible conditions.
At a forum on Tuesday in Leichhardt, MP for Balmain, Jamie Parker compared the federal asylum seeker policy to local council development applications, pointing out that DAs have a 40-day time frame and judicial review whereas asylum applications have neither.
316 days is the average period of detention for asylum seekers who are granted visas. Many are locked behind fences for over a year.
Spokesperson for the advocacy group Balmain for Refugees, Frances Milne said: “Over half the people currently in Villawood are from Christmas Island. Most of those have been in detention for over 2 years”.
Under the current government “none of the ministerial intervention requests get through,” Ms Milne said. She said this contrasts with the previous government, when Immigration Minister Phillip Ruddock regularly sent applications for review.
Malaysia has a comparable population to Australia, only a fraction of our wealth and yet it takes in 94,000 asylum seekers a year. Australia takes in 13,500 annually, down from 20,000 in the 1980’s. Ms Milne said we could be taking 30,000 easily.
“How we deal with asylum seekers is at the heart of how we value human life,” Mr Parker said. “We need to ensure that mandatory detention is ended.”
Asif Mohsini, a 24-year-old student from Afghanistan spent 13 months at Curtin Detention Centre. He said many people spend considerable time in detention “for no reason.”
He said people inside were going through a very serious situation, suffering depression, anxiety, insomnia and eating disorders as a result of their prolonged detention.
“How long do we have to consume anti-depressants, with all their side effects,” he said. “We feel that we have lost everything here, we are more than halfway to death, we are dying from the inside out.”
Prominent Lawyer and activist Julian Burnside, QC said that even if you put aside any moral obligation to look after asylum seekers, the burden of the psychological problems we are inflicting upon people in detention is one that Australia will have to bear for many years.
“We overlook completely how much they can contribute to our community if given half a chance,” he said.
Mr Burnside advocated a short detention period of 30 days for basic security and health checks, then release into the community to work freely while their claim is being processed.
He said this would cost only a fraction of the $140,000 a year it takes to keep someone in detention.
By Jason Marshall
Photo: Ben Raue
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November 12th, 2011 @ 3:06 pm
[...] Human costs of delayed detention – Inner West Independent, 3 November, 2011 [...]